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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Naeveo on 2024-06-21 16:50:41+00:00.
The X-Men.
You probably know them.
For the uninitiated: The X-Men is an American superhero franchise that follows a team of “mutants”, average people who suddenly gain superpowers through genetic mutations, trying to protect a world that hates and fears them. It started publication in 1963 through Marvel Comics, and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. In the mid-70’s, writer Chris Claremont took charge of the X-Men and turned them from a team of five mutants into an international team with a rotating cast. Under Claremont, the X-Men would create some of the most iconic comic book stories of all time. By the 80’s, the X-Men exploded into a massive multi-media franchise that changed the face of the comic book industry.
But in 2019, the X-Men franchise was in a state of disarray.
This is the story about the House of X, how it saved the X-Men, and how it fell apart.
Welcome… to The Krakoa Era!
Krako-What?: How The X-Men Broke
“The Krakoa Era” refers to a period of the X-Men comics from 2019 to 2024 that explored the concept of a mutant nation-state. It’s called “The Krakoa Era” because the mutant state is called Krakoa, and is located on a sentient island also called Krakoa. While mutant nation-states have been done before, like with Genosha, what made the Krakoa Era stand out was how it completely retooled the X-Men franchise into a utopian, queer-friendly, solarpunk sci-fi franchise. Krakoa wasn’t just a nation-state; it was heaven on Earth built by mutants, for mutants.
But first, a little context why Krakoa was needed in the first place.
You can read more about it here, so I’m going to keep it simple. In 2009, Disney bought Marvel Comics, but did not get the film or TV rights to a vast majority of X-Men characters. That honor belonged to their competitor, 20th Century Fox. So Disney decided to side-line the X-Men with another cast of characters called the Inhumans, whose film/TV rights they did own.
What followed was a slog of content from 2012 to 2017 that saw the X-Men comics (and films) release stinker after stinker.
In 2017, the tide began to change. Marvel would announce the “ResurrXion” relaunch which promised a back-to-roots approach by getting rid of the Inhumans. However, this would only last for two years.
Because Disney bought Fox and its X-Men license in 2019.
Disney could finally use the X-Men franchise to its full extent.
What this called for was a fresh start. And a man named Jonathan Hickman had an idea.
House of X (2019): Fixing X-Men
In 2019, it was announced that all X-Men comics would be canceled and that the entire line would be relaunched under Jonathan Hickman. At this point, Hickman was a superstar. He was hot off of finishing Secret Wars, an event comic that capped off a multi-year saga that began in Fantastic Four and stretched into The Avengers. This run of comics was so influential that several characters from these comics appeared in Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame. It’s an understatement to say fans were excited.
Hickman’s first comic would be a 12-issue series called House of X and Powers of X (shortened to HoXPoX from here out) with Pepe Larraz and [R.B. Silva as its artists. HoXPoX would be the only X-Men comic for 3 months. Afterwards, the rest of the comic line would be launched. Marvel teased that this was because HoXPoX so revolutionary that everything else had to wait. Hickman wasn’t just heralding a relaunch, he was changing everything about mutantkind. In fact, Hickman had an entire three-year epic already planned out.
To top it all off, Hickman would also have creative supervision over the entire X-Men line (known as “The X-Office”). He would be managing a room of writers and artists all collaborating together to mold a new era. He’d handle the main story, while other writers would come in to flesh out details, spin-out stories, and contribute to the overarching narrative. For comics this was never done before. Sure, comic creators talked and pitched to each other, but never all at once to develop an entire, cohesive line with a multi-year plan.
What Hickman was proposing was a permanent, collaborative, on-going creative team for all X-Men comics directed by one person. An X-Men writer’s room.
Then HoXPoX came out.
Without spoilers, HoXPoX covered both the founding of Krakoa, and the secret past of mutantkind. It’s a very dense comic that goes through thousands of years of history.
Here’s what changed:
- Everyone was back and accounted for. That really obscure character you like? They’re on Krakoa now. And they’re back with their powers too! And if they were dead? Well, they got better!
Clone characters not included for narrative and practical reasons. - Everyone had a fresh start. Part of the deal with Krakoa was that if you’re a mutant, you get Krakoan citizenship and you get criminal/legal amnesty for past crimes. All mutant villains had their pasts forgiven. Everyone was welcome on Krakoa to work together to a brighter future.
- The X-Men solved death. Using “The Resurrection Protocols”, The X-Men could now revive any mutant with their body, memories, mind, and soul fully intact in two days thanks to five mutants working together. Any character that was dead is back. Any character that could die could be back in a page or less.
- A new mythology. The secrets past and futures alluded to colonies of mutants in the ancient past, in the far-flung future, in space, and in other dimensions. Mutants were made an evolutionary inevitability anywhere life existed. But even in the most successful timelines, mutants fought advanced machine intelligence. Mutants were no longer fighting bigots, but also preparing for war against machine life.
- New aesthetics. Krakoa was a limitless resource, so all technology came from the island’s bio-organic sources. For example, instead of a gun, it was a tree gun on Krakoa. In order to bring this new aesthetic to life, Hickman and Tom Muller standardized the X-Men’s graphic design across all comics. They made an entirely new language font for mutants, inserted “data pages” in every issue, and homogenized all logos and title pages.
- New culture. Krakoa was a utopian, post-scarcity society. A government called The Quiet Council is formed to manage and protect Krakoa. They would manage the day-to-day economics and politics of Krakoa while everyone else got to enjoy paradise. Muntankind could now form a cultural identity without fear of human violence, oppression, or judgement.
- New world order. Krakoa strong-arms the entire world into recognizing their legitimacy. Overnight, Krakoa became an impenetrable fortress and an overwhelming superpower. All nations had to capitulate to their demands. The X-Men no longer peacefully lived with humanity, they peacefully ruled over it.
To Hickman, these changes would fix everything wrong with the X-Men.
And it sold like crazy. House of X #1 wound up selling 185,000 copies, a monumental achievement in the modern era. It maintained over 100,000 sales for its entire run. For context, most books struggle to crack 50,000 copies.
Critically, these changes were met with universal acclaim. For once, after decades of mistreatment, the X-Men felt like they were succeeding again. Critics thought the idea of a new mutant nation opened exciting new possibilities. Fans loved it because it fixed long-term continuity problems by just getting everyone in one place. As for newbies, HoXPoX needed surprisingly little knowledge in advanced because so much was changed. Only cursory knowledge of key characters was needed.
HoXPoX was a definitive statement. The X-Men were back. It was going to explore the limits of what the X-Men could do, how they could cooperate, and how they could thrive. What challenges would they face as a nation? What could even challenge them? How far could you push this concept?
Powers of X (2019): Fixing Comics
Alongside the reboot, the X-Office wanted to tackle another problem: getting people to read comics.
Comics, at least in America, are published on a weekly basis. Each comic series has at least one issue come out every month. A common complaint is that comics are difficult to …
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